Robinson Cano Doesn’t Actually Want $310 Million, Says Robinson Cano

Free agent Robinson Cano was in the Dominican Republic yesterday, sporting a very poor version of the David Ortiz beard and saying that he never asked for $310 million from anybody. So, there goes that leverage.

Cano answered questions regarding his free agency in Spanish, so perhaps something was lost in translation. But from what we can tell, he appears to be saying that he, personally, never asked for that much money:

“I’ve never asked anybody for $300 million… Nobody has ever heard that come out of my mouth [$300 MILLION] and you’re never going to hear it.”

As pointed out by the NY Daily News, Cano may have been doing the old “I’m not technically lying if I word my answer this way” trick. He may not have asked for $300 million — but his agents might have, and that’s reportedly what they did in a mid-season meeting with the Yankees brass.

Cano and the Yankees are reportedly still “very far” apart on terms for a new deal, so Cano’s asking price probably isn’t much less than that $300 million level. The Yankees were said to have offered about $150 million over seven years to the second baseman. Fair, unfair? In a post-Alex Rodriguez-contract (and, to a lesser extent, Albert Pujols) world, we doubt any position player (especially one above 30 years old) will get much more than that going forward.